Friday, October 1, 2010

Real consumer spending increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for a second straight month, the government’s data showed. In nominal terms, income rose 0.5% in August, after a 0.2% gain in July. Nominal spending rose 0.4% in August for the second straight month.

Real after-tax incomes rose 0.2% in August, after falling 0.2% in July. Incomes rose more than the 0.3% that had been forecast in a survey of economists by MarketWatch.

Here are the longer term components of savings. It looks like the growth in both income (increasing savings) and incremental spending (decreasing savings) are both bouncing back... but slowly.